The most commonly utilized fastener for earrings intended for pierced ears is that known as a "butterfly", which will be described in greater detail with respect to FIG. 1 at a later point in this disclosure. Basically, however, the butterfly of conventional use is simply a scrolled band of metal with a hole in the centre for passage of the stud, and the two ends coiled inwardly to rest resiliently against opposite sides of the stud, thereby retaining the butterfly in position on the stud. In use, the stud is passed through the pierced aperture in the earlobe from the outside, and the butterfly is snapped on the inwardly projecting end of the stud from behind the lobe.
Through repeated use, the butterfly is known to lose its ability to grip the stud securely, either because of wear, or distortion, or both. Many earrings of this type can be extremely expensive, and therefore it is desirable to provide some form of fastener for such studs which will be more reliable than the butterfly fasteners commonly in use.
Prior art of interest is also found in the area of hat pin protecting devices, such as were commonly used at the beginning of the twentieth century. The following may particularly be noted:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,089,867, Przybytka, Mar. 10, 1914 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 1,148,211, Carreras, July 27, 1915 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 1,024,563, Eckhart, Apr. 30, 1912 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 942,517, Reynolds, Dec. 7, 1909.
The Eckhart and Carreras devices use simple resilient squeezing to secure the fastener on the end of the hat pin, while Przybytka utilizes a camming device with an activating lever. Reynolds utilizes a bent piece of metal which, when resiliently distorted, has a plurality of holes which are in alignment and allow a hat pin to be inserted. When the device is released from its deformed condition, the holes seek to go out of alignment, thus gripping the pin.
Of lesser interest in U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,131, Musillo, Feb. 8, 1983, which discloses a spring-biased latch member for engagement with the end of a stud passing through the pierced aperture in an earlobe.
The hat pin fastener devices disclosed in the patents above listed are all too cumbersome, large and heavy to be utilized as a fastener for the stud of an ornament for pierced ears. Naturally, any appropriate device must be small enough to be hidden by the earlobe, an in this sense none of the hat pin devices would do.
The Musillo device requires a spring member, which of course introduces unreliability since the spring could break or lose its resilience, and since the spring constitutes a fourth independent member of the entire combination (the more members, the less reliable the device). In any event, Musillo is directed to a true "ring" for the ear, which is such as to support the pivoted end of the stud at one terminus of the ring, and the spring-biased latch at the other terminus of the ring.
By contrast, the present invention seeks to provide a reliable fastener for strongly gripping the stud of an ornament for pierced ears, where there is no ring member looping around from the back to the front of the earlobe (as in Musillo). Moreover, the present invention seeks to maximize reliability by minimizing the total number of pieces, reducing these to two in number.